Saturday, July 18, 2009

another sampler?

I just finished another sampler. This one's a gift. The squares are a bit smaller...only about 1". This was a bit of a challenge but it really helped me keep the stitches more delicate and fine.I had this Marie Antoinette idea in my head for a while...I just kept making french knots on top of french knots making her hair-do comically tall. I was thinking it would be fun to do a sampler of all sorts of funny hair-do's....maybe next.I used a beautiful, delicate piece of lace which I stitched over. I thought a couple of little birdies would like to call this prettiness home.I really love making fat french knots....sometimes I wound them up 6 or 7 times. I tried once to do 10 but it made a big fat mess. I really love the 3-d quality of the cupcake frosting. yum.Hey! I didn't even notice that little bit of black thread that is peeking out of the border...a sweet little springtime hat.My favorite of all. Metallic thread can be so hard to work with because it separates and knots easily but I really like the effect of it. This itty bitty cakestand looks so sweet in person.I like how this little pink house turned out...I did a little loopy thing with the treads along the roofline to make a scallop.

this is really adorable and i have to admit that it's very much the way that i like to draw -- small, sweet pictures. my favorite subjects: small cottages (natch), birthday cakes, red/white polka dotted mushrooms. i am so loving this!

This is absolutely charming, my dear! Fabulous job. Clearly, I think about food WAY too much, because I thought Marie Antoinette was an ice-cream soda!! Loved the adorable little cuppy-cake. This is beyond darling! - Kathy in Chicago

I absolutely love your little samplers! I have some linen embroidery cloth that I hope to hoop once I get my sewing room unpacked so I can give one a try. Re: your love for the knots with many wraps, you should check out the "bullion" embroidery stitch which is basically that, but there is so much you can do with a strand and all those wraps. If you want a book, the A-Z series of books published by Country Bumpkin of AU illustrates this and other stitches beautifully.